Media handing devices that process multiple document bunches must separate the documents for individual processing downstream within the media handling devices. A media separator is a component of the media handling devices. Typically, the media separator uses an ultrasonic sensor for detecting any overlapping documents.
The ultrasonic sensor reports when a detection is made as to whether the ultrasonic sensor detects: i) a clear condition, ii) a single condition, or iii) a double condition. A clear condition indicates that no document is detected by the ultrasonic sensor. A single condition indicates that one document is detected by the ultrasonic sensor. A double condition indicates one or multiple documents are detected by the ultrasonic sensor (a double condition can be two overlapping documents or one folded document).
A double feed recovery is performed by the media separator to separate any detected overlapping documents within the media separator (a double condition). The entire bunch of documents is backed up within the media separator and the bunch is attempted to be re-fed in a subsequent iteration. This cycle repeats until a document separates or a predefined number of retries is exhausted.
Traditional double feed recovery processing makes little progress separating overlapping documents with reach retry. So, the traditional processing (document throughput within the media separator) is very inefficient and slow and often takes many attempts to separate documents in a bunch. Furthermore, the retry processing is overly aggressive in nature for some documents that just require a little assistance to separate. This over aggressive approach can cause limp or worn documents to buckle, crumple, and jam within the media separator resulting in a fatal fault. Still further, and often, the retry processing is exhausted before the document separates resulting in a fault and the documents are returned to the customer. The customer can detect no apparent reason for the documents being returned and there is nothing the customer can do in assisting the media separator for successfully accepting and processing the documents.
Thus, the traditional slow double feed recovery, frequent inconvenient and unnecessary media separator faults, and returned documents to the customer can cause support confusion and poor customer satisfaction with the enterprise associated with the media handling device having the media separator.